Beth Hankes

We are very pleased to feature Beth Hankes for our October 17 profile. A Fine Art photographer and installation artist, Beth's photographic installation works have been seen in exhibits at the Photographic Resource Center/Boston, the Human Flows exhibition at the University of Cambridge in England and this past Summer at Room 68 in Provincetown MA.

(Please click on the images above to view them in a slideshow menu)

Sensual Structures

I had the chance to view Beth's works just after the New England Portfolio Reviews at the Griffin Museum of Photography in the summer of 2016. I didn't review the work but rather saw them casually. I immediately felt like the work was compelling. Beth is pushing the boundaries of photography in her multi leveled approach to building abstact and stirring images through a cut up collage technique that reveals a new dimension within the structure and perspective on figurative photographs. To quote Beth in her statement she nails it by saying "I emphasize a photograph’s capacity for being an entity by creating singular objects constructed from what was once something simply captured." Simply captured yet fundamentally complex in the approach to building something that is linear, colorful, sensous and tactile.

Beth Hankes is a photographer and installation artist working in both film and digital formats. Her work has been exhibited in New England and abroad, notably at Room 68 in Provincetown summer 2017, at the 2013 Human Flows exhibition at the University of Cambridge in England, and at the Photographic Resource Center in Boston in 2012.

Beth graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 2008 with a degree in art history and studio art, and finished her master's degree in museum studies from Harvard Extension School in 2015. Beth lives and works in Newton, MA.

Statement

What is it about shapes, lines, and colors that are appealing, both in an object, and in a figure?

Why is there a desire to touch artwork that excites us, and a body that attracts us?

Do the experiences of each relate, or are they distinct?

I explore these questions in my ’Sensual Structures’ series. The visceral and the tactile nature of color, texture, and form excites me. I particularly find photographs to have a physicality that is pleasurable to work with. In these collages I emphasize a photograph’s capacity for being an entity by creating singular objects constructed from what was once something simply captured.

The addition of the human figure adds a layer of tension to these compositions. Is the body simply a set of curves, lines, and shapes? Or does its geometry suggest more? Is it ok to accept the human figure as an object, or is humanity reduced in doing so? This tension and the unease it causes fascinates me, and fuels my exploration.